Decoding Common Telephone System Acronyms

Acronyms are popping up everywhere, we see them on social media (SMH), text them to our friends (OMG), and now they are advancing on the workplace. An acronym is an abbreviation derived from the first part of a word or phrase. As technology continues to grow at a break neck speed we must keep pace with what these telephone system acronyms are and what they mean.

This will help to stay in the know in the midst of an ever expanding world. If you have ever Googled telephone systems you will see many acronyms that have begun sneaking into articles. VoIP, or “Voice over Internet Protocol”, is the most common acronym you will come across.  It means the phone service is sending voice packets over an internet connection instead of a standard phone line. IP PBX is another common term. This stands for “Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange” which is the exchange service used to make an IP call. PSTN stands for “Public Switched Telephone Network” which does the same thing as an IP PBX only it is used to connect landline circuits. It is more commonly known as POTS or “Plain Old Telephone Service”. UC stands for “Unified Communications”. UC helps integrate a wide variety of devices so they can all work together to keep their users connected. For the telephone world this means you can now listen to your voicemail via an email or send a fax from your cell phone. UC is a huge advance for the business world because you can access/send/receive information from anywhere which leads us to our last few acronyms; SIP or “Session Initiation Protocol”, IM or “Instant Message”, and VC or “Video Conference”. SIP is how calls are initially set up and then how they convey data. Once the connection has been made via a SIP you can IM, VC, or just make a regular telephone call. Knowing these acronyms means you know what telephone systems can do to improve your business and how to properly research and communicate with people about telephone systems. For information on how to outfit your company with the best telephone system call the professionals at Affordable Telephone today!

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Call Handling through Hunt Groups

A hunt group (or line hunting) is a telephony term for distributing phone calls from a single phone number to a select group of phone lines. A formula or algorithm is used to decide which line receives the next inbound call and how to handle that call in the event a line is busy. There are different types of hunt groups, each using a different algorithm for call handling:

Multi-line hunting – In multi-line hunting multiple inbound lines act as a single group. If a line is busy, the call goes to the next line in the group.

Linear hunting – With linear hunting, calls are delivered to the first in the group if available, then the second, third, etc. in succession. The first line in the group always gets the call if available.

Circular hunting – This hunting type provides a more even distribution of calls in a round robin fashion and is particularly useful for fax and electronic answering equipment.

Most idle hunting – Another good way to distribute calls to a group, most idle hunting delivers calls (as the name suggests) to the line which has been idle longest.

For more information about phone features such as hunt groups, call your local experts at Affordable Telephone Systems.  They will provide you with all the information you need to choose features or select the right phone system for your business.  They provide assistance with the installation and operation and provide on call service to help you after business hours.

For the best advice and support of telephone systems for small businesses, Affordable Telephone Systems, a name you can trust!

Affordable Telephone Systems                   866-666-9650

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Virtual Receptionist – Can you afford to miss a customer call?

The Virtual Receptionist is an Automated Attendant telephony feature that allows phone calls to your business to be routed to the appropriate extension without the need for a live person.  Many Automated Attendant systems offer a simple menu (Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for Service, etc.) and also allow the caller to reach a live operator.  Automated Attendant features can be part of your telephone system, especially PBX (Private Branch Exchange) systems or more advanced IVRs (Interactive Voice Response) systems.

The Automated Attendant is an excellent telephony feature for the small business that needs to stay connected with customers, does not want to pay a full time receptionist, and yet wants a professional, easy-to-use system for routing calls to the appropriate person.  If you have any questions about adding a Virtual Receptionist to your business, call Affordable Telephone Systems today.  They offer the best small business telephone systems and will advise you on the best way to add any new features and functionality to improve your business communications.

Affordable Telephone Systems         866-666-9650

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Video Conferencing – Cost effective visual collaboration for your business

Video conferencing or video telecommunications conferencing allows 2 or more locations to communicate via two-way audio and video.  This visual collaboration was introduced in the United States in the early ‘70s and has now become extremely popular with the availability of low cost, high capacity broadband services.  Powerful desktop computing and advanced compression techniques have propelled the use of video conferencing in business, especially education and medicine.

Video conferencing allows geographically distributed organizations to meet as if they were all sitting in the same room.  The ability to visually collaborate with others without having to physically travel to another location has made it practical for small businesses to grow their footprint without significantly raising costs.  It supports work-from-home telecommuting without sacrificing integration and team involvement.

Video conferencing is a great way to connect and collaborate with your remote offices and your business clients.  If you have any questions about the best way to integrate video conferencing into your phone and data network, contact Affordable Telephone Systems.  They offer the best telephone systems for smallbusinesses and will help you add features and functionality to improve your business communications.

Affordable Telephone Systems          866-666-9650

We’ll keep you connected! . . . Our Commitment Guaranteed!